Friday, 29 April 2005
Today a meeting of the state commission for preparation of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide has been held at the Office of Government under the chairmanship of Prime Minister A. Margaryan.
The commission reviewed the progress in the implementation of program events. It took note of the outcome of the scheduled events and gave new instructions for the period ahead. Prime Minister A. Margaryan thanked commission members and all those who had made an active contribution to the successful organization of the projected functions. He stressed the importance of seeing the planned activities through to the end of the year with as much interest and consistency as this was going to lay the framework for the conduct of well-targeted and continued policies in the matter of Genocide recognition.
Commission members took the floor alternately to report on the activities underway in the fields under their responsibility. RA Foreign Minister advised in particular that the international conference held in Yerevan in April 20-21 has evoked great interest abroad and comments still keep coming in. The conference was a success both in terms of its representativeness and content. He stressed the live broadcasts through the public TV, which were followed closely by our compatriots in the Diaspora. According to the minister, the event was given wide publicity owing to the efforts of the press center set up by the commission, which coordinated the activities of local and foreign media, including BBC, CNN, Euronews, Reuter etc with the latter having performed live broadcasts from the capital of Armenia to brief the international community on the developments in Yerevan and the views expressed by conference participants. The speaker mentioned that the invitation sent out by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs had been accepted by numerous Turkish media through which the general public in that country was able to get acquainted with the attitude of the Armenian side on the matter. The Turkish news reporters had interviewed the Armenian Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and Armenian historians and got comprehensive answers to all those questions of interest to them.
The Mayor of Yerevan reported that the nocturnal torchlight procession in Yerevan was likewise well-organized involving representatives from the youth sections of different political parties and non-governmental organizations in addition to the students of over 18 HEIs operating in the capital. He availed himself of the opportunity to thank the police forces for an exemplary discharge of their duty all the way through this 14.000-strong ceremonial procession and the April 24 one to Tzitzernakaberd with an unprecedented rate of attendance as no incident had been witnessed for the whole duration of these mass events. The chairman of the commission and other members, too, expressed their appreciation to the police. Over 800.000 people were reported to have visited the memorial momplex of Tzitzernakaberd with further 670.000 having participated in the processions held in the province. According to the Director of the Genocide Institute-Museum, people kept coming in even on the few days that followed April 24.
RA ministers of culture and education and science, the representative of the Holy See, the President of the NAS, as well as the members of the advocacy group of the commission reported that all of the projected events
